I explore the potential of tech to benefit humanity, with a focus on developing societies.
My work has been featured by NPR, the World Bank, and the World Economic Forum.

Assistant Professor of Economics, Brown University (on sabbatical)
Visiting Researcher, Microsoft Research New England (2019-2020)
Co-founder, Precision Agriculture for Development

Curriculum Vitae
dan[@]bjorkegren[.]com      


Publications
The Adoption of Network Goods: Evidence from the Spread of Mobile Phones in Rwanda
Review of Economic Studies (2019) [ Slides | Supplemental Appendix ]
Behavior Revealed in Mobile Phone Usage Predicts Credit Repayment
with Darrell Grissen
World Bank Economic Review (2019)
Media coverage: NPR Morning Edition, The World Bank (syndicated to World Economic Forum), New Scientist, Radio New Zealand
Original proposal: Big Data for Development (posted 2010)
The Potential of Digital Credit to Bank the Poor
with Darrell Grissen
American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings (2018)
Working Papers
Competition in Network Industries: Evidence from the Rwandan Mobile Phone Network
Submitted.
Nostalgic Demand
Non-Choice Evaluations Predict Behavioral Responses to Changes in Economic Conditions
with B. Douglas Bernheim, Jeffrey Naecker, and Antonio Rangel
Rejected with an invitation to resubmit, American Economic Review
The Effect of Network Adoption Subsidies: Evidence from Digital Traces in Rwanda
with Burak Ceyhun Karaca
Submitted.
Measuring Informal Work with Digital Traces: Mobile Payphone Operators in Rwanda
Conference Articles (Peer Reviewed)
Balancing Competing Objectives for Welfare-Aware Machine Learning with Imperfect Data
with Esther Rolf, Max Simchowitz, Sarah Dean, Lydia Liu, Moritz Hardt, and Joshua Blumenstock
Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) Joint Workshop on AI for Social Good (2019). Best Paper Award
(Machine) Learning what Governments Value
with Samsun Knight and Joshua Blumenstock
Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) Workshop on Machine Learning for the Developing World (2019)
In Progress
Manipulation Proof Machine Learning
with Joshua Blumenstock and Samsun Knight
Fieldwork in progress. (blog post on focus groups: How do you say algorithm in Kiswahili?)
Welfare-Sensitive Machine Learning
with Joshua Blumenstock
Fieldwork in progress.
Planning (De)Centralized Transportation Networks
with Nick Tsivanidis
The Value and Spread of Information: Evidence from a Mobile Phone Discount
White Papers
Inferring Missing Cell Tower Locations using Call Handoffs (2014)
Products
Microsoft Pictures App for Microsoft's first smartphones (2001)